PROGRESS 2024: Years of hard work for Eastside, Eastbrook archers pays off with state championship
Mar. 29—When Scott Ellis, the coach of the archery teams at Eastside Elementary and Eastbrook Middle in Dalton, welcomes new archers into the programs, they're often inexperienced with a bow.
"Probably 99% of these kids have never picked up a bow in their life," Ellis said.
And their coach could identify with learning archery on the fly.
When Ellis helped originate the archery programs at the schools, he'd never shot a bow and arrow either.
"When our principal asked for volunteers about six years ago to start this program, I had never picked up a bow either," Ellis said. "Fast forward six years later, we've had a lot of success."
That success has translated into a state championship for Eastbrook Middle School.
Eastbrook won the 2024 middle school state championship organized by the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP), earning a trip to the NASP Eastern Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 9-11.
Eastbrook's high score of 3,174 — perfect is 3,600 — was the best round of shooting by a middle school team in the state in the NASP program this year. Teams shoot tournaments locally, then submit their top scores to NASP, who determines a state champion. Then, nationals are held in-person. State champions are automatically qualified for nationals, but other schools can also qualify for the event based on scoring in tournaments. Ellis's Eastside archers finished third in the state in the elementary school division and will also be headed to Louisville.
Eastside's program has attended nationals for the last two years and Eastbrook went last year, but this is the first time that Eastbrook has broken through for a state championship.
"Of course, they love to go on trips. It's always fun, especially for some of the elementary kids that haven't been there before," Ellis said. "This year, we're representing the state of Georgia as the state champion. It's a great opportunity to represent the state, the county and the school system."
Students can join the archery program beginning in fourth grade.
Eastside is a feeder school for Eastbrook, so most of the middle school archers were once Eastside shooters, staying with Ellis throughout their time at both schools.
"I think that's why we had the success of winning state this year because these kids have been through the program all the way," Ellis said. "One girl in eighth grade has been through the program for five years with me."
"It shows the commitment and the success they have when they stick with it," he said.
And archery is a big commitment for the students in the Eastside and Eastbrook programs.
Where most sports have a season that lasts a few months, Ellis's teams practice twice a week all school year, September through May.
"It's a yearlong process," Ellis said. "To watch them grow, and kind of see how far they come from the beginning to the end of the year, is great."
And, of course, starting as a novice himself when the program started, Ellis said his skills — as an archer and as a teacher — have also grown over the last few years.
"There's little things when you first start that you don't notice as much," Ellis said. "Since I've been doing it longer, you start to notice those little things about their form that you now know to fix."
Ellis said reaching a state championship milestone is exciting to see for the young program.
"They've put in a lot of work and a lot of time, and it pays off," he said. "To watch them succeed is the reason I do it."
